Description
- Abstract:
- Geological samples can provide crucial insights into planetary origins, formation processes, differentiation, and evolution from the early Solar System to the present day. The first extraterrestrial samples returned to Earth were collected from the Moon by Apollo astronauts. These samples have undergone decades of analysis, significantly advancing our understanding of the Moon’s origin. To fully interpret lunar evolution using these samples, it is critical to determine their original locations. The lunar surface is constantly reshaped by meteorite impacts, leading to gardening, recycling, ejection, and shock alteration of surface material. Therefore, most Apollo samples are allochthonous, meaning that they were typically collected far from where they originally formed. Additionally, many samples which have been ejected during impact events have undergone high Pressure/Temperature (P/T) conditions that obscure their pre-impact history. So, to accurately trace the origins of lunar samples, it is crucial to understand the impact processes that ejected them. This work aims to enhance our understanding of impact cratering processes and provide rigorous estimates of P/T conditions in lunar material ejected during impact events, to locate source craters of Apollo samples. To do this we use combined numerical modeling, statistical analysis and reported geochemical data. Establishing a scaling relationship between crater size and ejecta P/T conditions will not only improve our ability to trace previously collected lunar samples but also guide future sample collection efforts, such as those planned for the Artemis missions. A better understanding of P/T distributions in crater ejecta will refine our knowledge of impact cratering physics, the most common geological process in the Solar System.
Access Conditions
- Use and Reproduction
- All rights reserved
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- All Rights Reserved
Citation
Allspaw, Sadie,
"Distribution of Pressure-Temperature Among Lunar Ejecta and Implications for Apollo Samples"
(2025).
Summer Research Symposium.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/q2j5-qk37
Relations
Collection:
-
Summer Research Symposium
Each year, Brown University showcases the research of its undergraduates at the Summer Research Symposium. More than half of the student-researchers are UTRA recipients, while others receive funding from a variety of Brown-administered and national programs and fellowships and go …...